Irvine wins again on the road, defeating Troy 21-17 to improve record to 2-0

Irvine’s Tate Zimmerman, who was all over the field passing, catching, running, kicking and playing tough defense, makes a TD saving tackle on Cooper Valle of Troy Friday night. (Photo courtesy Jim Tomlin, For OC Sports Zone)

Irvine High’s football team notched its second consecutive road victory Friday night, defeating Troy 21-17 at Fullerton.

“Last night was a battle,” said Irvine Coach Tom Ricci on Saturday. “We knew that coming in. We felt like going into Canyon, our offense had to produce, but going into Troy, our defense had to produce.

“My new defensive coordinator, Kyle Jaeger, did a fantastic job with the defense this week. We knew it would come down to them and it did.  They had a couple of huge holds at the end that sealed the game.  I’ve got to hand it to Coach (Michael) Echaves, he had his boys ready to play and run their Wing-T very well.

“We worked hard on it all week trying to emulate it. Our defensive standouts Tate Zimmerman and Nick Rudolph were constantly causing havoc in the backfield. Nathan Sasaki had an interception early on that fired everyone up.”

Irvine’s starting quarterback Jack Condon went down with an injury early in the game so the Vaqueros called on Zimmerman to call signals.

“He had some clutch passes and threw for a TD,” RIcci said.  We had guys rotating through O and D due to injuries, but there was surprisingly little drop off.  Overall I’m super happy at the way our boys played. That’s Vaquero football at it’s best.”

NEXT UP:

Irvine hosts Sonora Friday at 7 at Irvine Stadium. Troy (2-1) plays at Rancho Alamitos Friday.